Rough? Sounds rather fragile to me. 
Two names I heard in my previous job were Mrs Cowmeadow and Mrs Shaglady. Needless to say, when I actually got round to calling them, I thought it would be safer to simply address them both as Ma’am.
There was also a Polish customer, whose surname was Matwizczuk. No way was I able to guess the pronunciation of that one, so in the end I just asked him outright. Turns out it was pronounced Mat-a-chess-ki… not at all how I imagined!
well this is kind of disturbing, but this is the technique I use to stop from laughing…
I think of incredibly sad or upsetting things. I’ll imagine something bad happening to someone I care about and how I would feel about it. It’s not pleasant, but it’ll keep you from laughing.
This reminds me of a story about the man who invented the flush toilet, Thomas Crapper. You know how everyone says they’re gonna visit the crapper? Well, it turns out that Thomas Crapper changed his name… Too Crapper. His oringinal name was Thomas Shithouse.
just fyi
I dunno if I’d want to do that for every time I had that girl in my class during a whole semester. Might kinda get callous to your friends dying after a while, or something. =P
pops in
Damasu, welcome to the boards!
pops out
“Those who fail to see the whimsy in things will experience rigor mortis before death.”
Tom Robbins
Was the child hispanic?
I talked to a paramedic (or maybe just EMS tech, not sure, worked on an ambulance though) who said he is resonsible for several children being named Placenta. See, in Dallas it’s not uncommon for some poorer hispanic women who are in labor to wait until they are about to have the baby, and then call 911 and have an ambulance come out. If they time it right they will end up having to deliver the baby at home, which saves them on hospital bills while still having a medically skilled person handy to help in case of any complications. The mothers would frequently ask for the name of the guy who helped deliver the baby, and then would use that name for the baby.
Now, the poor guys in the ambulance naturally resent this money-saving technique - childbirth should ideally be done in a hospital with a doctor in attendance, and there’s always the chance that the guy delivering it may end up responsible for a dead or damaged baby and/or mother. So, he explained to me, he started telling them his name was ‘Placenta’ when they asked.
Despite being old enough to have a mortgage, children and a career, I still find that funny.
But then, I still giggle at a friend of mine who works in Germany, and his address is room A-06. Which in German is pronounced “A Nol Sechs”
As in Anal Sex.
See, I’m even chuckling now.
I had a caller a while back whose first name was Pusey. Pronounced “pussy.” Which wouldn’t have been so bad if her last name wasn’t “Kuntz.” Kuntz was her married name. Personally I’d have made my husband change his name.
One of the employees at my company bears the last name ‘Motefaker’. I don’t know her personally-I just deal with some headcount and payroll tasks here-so I don’t know for sure how it’s pronounced. And I don’t want to ask.
I saw a job application from a woman named “Lesbia”.
And in college, there was a grad student named Mafoud (muh-food). We never tired of asking, “Where’s Mafoud?”
Friend of mine had a TA named Ufuk once.
When I was in grade six, the principal of the school was named Mr. Swerdfeger. :eek:
Not to call you out, Badtz, but that sounds suspiciously like an urban legend. Maybe your pal was pulling your leg?
It’s “Mchedlishvili,” sans intercap-H. And cuauhtemoc is right; she’s Georgian, as in Republic of Georgia. She actually turned into a pretty good friend of mine over the years.
And as it turns out, I was also born in Georgia, but the one next to Florida, not Chechnya. We’ve been through all the jokes: “Republic of Georgia? Did y’all secede again and I missed it?”
When I work for the DoD, one of the guys on the payroll had the last name of Fuecker. When he got married, he took his wife’s name. His last name is now “Johnson”
[sub]PS- The paperwork hassle that ensued was incredible. A woman working for the government may change her name, but God forbid a man does.[/sub]
“Your name is Gaylord Fokker?”
“Oh my, if he does marry Martha, her name will be…”
In 1915, Anthony Fokker invented an interrupter gear which timed machine guns to fire through the propeller arc without damaging the propeller. That’s one smart Fokker.
Was it hand blown or mouth blown glass?
I had a series of GP physicians named Dr. Breaststicker and Dr. Midol. Both male.
In the course of my job at the library I checked out a book to an Asian girl whose name was Yin Yang.
My best friend’s last name is Toker. She constantly gets people going “That is not your real name.” It’s hell for her to try ordering a pizza.